Why is it so intriguing to peek into the past? Think about how much time you spend flipping through old family albums, vintage pictures in shops or garage sales, or - dare I say - Facebook albums of yesteryear. To me it’s clear: old photos are magic. There's some universal connective tissue between our world and the world before us, and photos are a fast way into the past.
In these photographs from Life Magazine, you find hints of places ... Read More

Ireland has passed the "Protection of Life During Pregnancy" bill into law - and thank (non-denominational) God(s), the "life" being protected here is actually the pregnant woman's.
Ireland's zealously religious "pro-life" cultural climate pushed against this decision with protests and debates for months now. Even when Savita Halappanavar tragically died after being denied an abortion in Ireland last year, her widower Praveen had a straightforward ... Read More

Witches are real and they do sail across the night sky on broomsticks. Well, more like plywood and canvas airplanes. This is what the Nazis thought of the “Night Witches,” a group of young Russian women volunteering themselves to fight (and fly) for their country. They flew under the moonlight, their only tools being maps and compasses—no parachutes, radios, or radars. They completed 30,000 missions over 4 years and dropped about 23,000 tons of ... Read More

Haze, 2003, Plastic Straws
The materials an artist uses clearly says something about their aesthetic, but at the same time a material can be neutral enough to be transformative. Such is the case with Tara Donovan, who, by using humble, everyday materials such as plastic cups and straws, manages to create ephemeral spaces in which the viewer gets tricked. I say tricked because by utilizing utilitarian materials, Donovan provides the viewer with a passage into the ... Read More

For those of you who don’t know Carla Bruni, she is a quick-witted Italian-French songwriter, musician, model and the former First Lady of France. I randomly came across her music about 8 years ago while working on a short film about a French girl in New York and I loved it without even knowing who the hell she was. It’s a little jazz, a little pop, a little romance and a little wild. For me, I don’t need to understand the words to get down with ... Read More

Worlds collide! Jay-Z's latest album, Magna Carta Holy Grail, is a hat tip to the contemporary art scene. As if being married to the Queen art historian herself wasn't enough, Mr. Carter is releasing six pieces of his own art to accompany his record. The video for his new song “Picasso Baby” seems to be the first.
For the vid, Jay stared into the eyes of famed performance artist Marina Abramovic in Chelsea's Pace Gallery ... Read More

Apparently mannequins are the reason men rape women.
I’m sorry...WHAT?! I wish this was a joke, but no - popular opinion in Mumbai is pushing the government to ban lingerie-clad mannequins from storefronts. Yes, those plastic people. They say the mannequins get men too excited and cause them to go out into the street with a need to rape and abuse women and girls.
Many people in Mumbai are absolutely furious with these accusations. Being highly ... Read More

Ready for BUST’s 20th Anniversary Extravaganza? All of us here at BUST are bracing ourselves for the amazing lineup of performers that we have. One fantastic comedian that’ll be sailing with us for the evening is the one and only Julie Klausner. Julie has a lot to get off her chest. She really has a way with words, being that she is a comedian, writer, performer, author and podcaster and never fails to impress us or make us laugh.
Julia’s ... Read More

Now to get kicked out of a child’s swim park you have to be doing something pretty obscene, right? Wearing a bikini apparently falls under that context.
Madelyn Shaeffer, a 42-year-old mother from Missouri, was kicked out of Adventure Oasis Water Park for wearing a bikini on premises. Such a scandal, America!
While playing with her children in one of the park pools, Shaeffer was approached by park staff and they asked her to put shorts over her bikini ... Read More

Trigger Warning: This post contains a description of rape and abortion.
There's been a lot of talk about abortion rights lately, especially with the controversy surroundingTexas' SB 5. A young girl in Chile is now experiencing the awful consequences of restricted regulations on women's health care. What happens when an 11-year-old girl is continuously raped, resulting in a pregnancy that would put the life of the unborn as well as her own in danger, and is ... Read More